Cyril Garbett

Cyril Forster Garbett GCVO[1] (6 February 1875 – 31 December 1955)[2] was an Anglican bishop[3] and author.[4] He was successively the Bishop of Southwark, the Bishop of Winchester and the Archbishop of York from 1942 to 1955.

The Most Reverend and Right Honourable

Cyril Garbett

GCVO
Archbishop of York
ChurchChurch of England
ProvinceProvince of York
Installed11 June 1942
Term ended6 February 1955
PredecessorWilliam Temple
SuccessorMichael Ramsey
Orders
Ordination1899 (deacon)
1901 (priest)
Consecration1919
Personal details
Birth nameCyril Forster Garbett
Born(1875-02-06)6 February 1875
Tongham, Surrey
Died31 December 1955(1955-12-31) (aged 80)
West Riding of Yorkshire

Early life

Garbett was born in the village of Tongham in Surrey, next to Aldershot in Hampshire, the son of Rev Charles Garbett, the vicar of Tongham. At the age of 11, he was sent to Portsmouth Grammar School and then to Keble College, Oxford, in 1894. After this, he went to Cuddesdon Theological College to study theology and prepare for ordination.

Ordained Ministry

Garbett was ordained in 1899 as a deacon[5] and was sent to be a curate of St Mary's Portsea, where he was ordained to the priesthood in 1901 and remained until 1919, after 1909 as its vicar. In 1911 he was joined at Portsea by the newly ordained George Armitage Chase, who would later serve Garbett after his ordination to the episcopate, as examining chaplain.[6] Tubby Clayton, later to found Toc H, was his curate from 1910 to 1915.[7]

Garbett was consecrated as the Bishop of Southwark[8] by Randall Davidson, Archbishop of Canterbury, at St Paul's Cathedral on St Luke's day (18 October) 1919[9] and remained in this position until his translation as the Bishop of Winchester in 1932 before, in 1942, becoming the Archbishop of York.[10]

Archbishop of York

Garbett was a popular public figure, especially as a pastoral bishop, famous for trudging the length of his dioceses with his walking stick, visiting both clergy and lay people in the towns he passed through. Although personally warm, he had a reputation as a firm disciplinarian with clergy in his dioceses.

Politically and theologically, he is best seen as a transitional figure between the Edwardian and modern periods of the Church of England. A staunch nationalist and royalist, he held an erastian view of the Church of England clearly as a national church, and he held strongly traditional views of issues such as family relationships, sexual morality, and corporal punishment.

On the other hand, Garbett belonged to the generation which was comfortable with the idea of diversity in the Church of England and had little patience for High Church versus Low Church struggles. He was a pioneer of the Ecumenical Movement and, during and after the Second World War, travelled extensively, including to Communist Bloc countries. Although generally perceived as leaning rightwards politically, he was comfortable with the welfare state which emerged during his archiepiscopate.

Garbett's trip to Moscow in September 1943, at the invitation of the Moscow Patriarchate, was greeted by the newly installed Moscow Patriarch Sergiy (Stragorodskiy),[11][12] was used by Joseph Stalin's propaganda machine to spread falsehoods about religious freedom in the USSR:[13] on 24 September, the New York Times quoted Garbett as stating that "he was convinced that there was the fullest freedom of worship in the Soviet Union". However, during the Cold War, Garbett denounced Communism as un-Christian and actively supported the British government line.

On 17 April 1944, Garbett appeared on the cover of TIME magazine after he had been persuaded by the British Ministry of Information to go to the United States to discuss religious freedom in Russia. During this visit, he said that "Marshal Stalin, being a great statesman, has recognised the power of religion."[14]

Garbett's visit to Dublin, where he met President De Valera, was considered significant.

Garbett sat in the House of Lords for many years as a Lord Spiritual and, as an erastian, he took his duties very seriously. In a notable statement made to the House of Lords in 1942, Garbett denounced Nazi Germany's extermination of Polish Jews, calling it "the deliberate and cold-blooded massacre of a nation." [15]

On his retirement, Garbett was offered and accepted a hereditary barony, but he died before this could be legally created. It is thought he was to take the title Baron Garbett of Tongham.

Final years

Garbett continued to work into his late seventies, which eventually took its toll. He baptised Princess Anne, the second child and only daughter of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip on 21 October 1950 in the Music Room at Buckingham Palace. In 1953 he established The Queen's School in Jamaica in dedication to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. On his eightieth birthday, 6 February 1955, he retired from active ministry and was created a Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order. Later that year, he underwent surgery and spent the last months of his life in a convalescent home where he continued to write and correspond until his death, on 31 December 1955.

References
  1. Dr. Garbett G.C.V.O. The Times (London, England), Monday, 7 February 1955; pg. 8; Issue 53159
  2. Many Tributes To Dr. Garbett. The Times (London, England), Monday, 2 January 1956; pg. 8; Issue 53417
  3. Matthew Grimley, ‘Garbett, Cyril Forster (1875–1955)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, January 2011 accessed 19 February 2017
  4. Amongst others he wrote Can we believe, 1905; The Church and Modern Problems, 1911; The Challenge of the King, 1915; The Work of a Great Parish, 1915; After the War, 1924; Secularism and Christian Unity, 1929; In the Heart of South London; A Call to Christians, 1935; The Church and Social Problems, 1939; What is Man?, 1940; We would see Jesus, 1941; Physician, heal Thyself, 1945; The Burge Memorial Lecture, 1945; Watchman, What of the Night?, 1948. Trilogy: Vol. I, The Claims of the Church of England, 1947; Vol. II, Church and State, 1950; Vol. III, In an Age of Revolution, 1952; The Church of England Today, 1953; and World Problems of To-day, 1955 > British Library web site accessed 19 February 2017
  5. "The Clergy List, Clerical Guide and Ecclesiastical Directory" London, John Phillips, 1900
  6. Obituary of George Armitage Chase, The Times, 1 December 1971
  7. The Rev P. T. B. Clayton The Times (London, England), Tuesday, Dec 19, 1972; pg. 18; Issue 58660
  8. New Bishop Of Southwark. The Times (London, England), Friday, 25 July 1919; pg. 15; Issue 42161
  9. "Six bishops consecrated". Church Times (#2961). 24 October 1919. p. 381. ISSN 0009-658X. Retrieved 26 December 2016 – via UK Press Online archives.
  10. Editorial (Leader) Canterbury and York. The Times (London, England), Monday, 23 February 1942; pg. 5; Issue 49167
  11. Журнал Московской Патриархии. 1943, # 2, pp 18 – 23
  12. "I.F.ColquhounRussia. Manipulates the Church. Then ... and NOW!". Archived from the original on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 7 May 2007.
  13. "Dianne Kirby. The Church of England and 'Religions Division' during the Second World War: Church-State Relations and the Anglo-Soviet Alliance". Archived from the original on 30 September 2007. Retrieved 7 May 2007.
  14. Archived 13 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine Kent, Bruce Review of Church, State and Propaganda: The Archbishop of York and International Relations – a policy study of Cyril Forster Garbett, 1942–1955 University of Hull Press (1999)
  15. Hansard, House of Lords Debates, 9 December 1942, vol. 125, cc485-486.
Church of England titles
Preceded by
Hubert Burge		 Bishop of Southwark
1919–1932		 Succeeded by
Richard Parsons
Preceded by
Theodore Woods		 Bishop of Winchester
1932–1942		 Succeeded by
Mervyn Haigh
Preceded by
William Temple		 Archbishop of York
1942–1955		 Succeeded by
Michael Ramsey
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